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2012 iMac Said to Carry Thinner Design, Alleged Internals Photo Surfaces
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except it's NOT fallacy, because it IS being replaced by many things... large files? dropbox, etc... movies/tv? hulu/netflix/itunes/amazon/etc... not to mention if someone is going to rip their DVDs to disk, they've probably already done it... lots of photos? a 32GB or higher SD card... I have to move files around all the time, and I never use a disc any more. If I do need some kind of physical media to hand over to someone in person, it's a tiny USB thumb drive which holds way more than a DVD and is about 5/8" x 1 3/8" x 1/4" (but again, that's happened twice in the past few years for me)
I just don't know of anyone personally that still uses a disc drive... I work in design/development and have not used one for work in 3 years! Most people I've collaborated with already use macbooks that don't have the disc drive, and as someone pointed out above, the external drive makes more sense if you have an iMac + Macbook + PC... the few times you might need to use it you can use the same drive across multiple machines instead of having a drive in every machine doing nothing 95% of the time or more.
No offense taken as I've never owned 8-track device...And no offense to you either but you appear to be 5 beers short of a 6 pack here...Yeah, there are 256 gb flash storage...Unfortunately they cost well over $100 a piece and they are unreliable forms of long term storage and easily become corrupted...So epic fail for you and I feel bad about having to do this to you, and I mean it I do but it needed to be done.
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The majority of people won't add RAM themselves or open up their computer. It's a moot point.
Yes it is....I'm fully aware of these other technologies..Unfortunately these aren't reliable for long term storage for family photos and movies.
I too am a sucker for form, and open to minor tradeoffs, and I'm all for Apple's brutal stance on legacy support. But occasionally the form over function thing leads to Apple sticking with clunky and antiquated solutions.
Take wireless mice and keyboards. I started using those in the late 90's. The early, crude Logitech stuff required you to insert a bunch of AA batteries. Then they started with Li-ion batteries. At first it was still kinda clunky, you had to use a cradle plugged into the wall, and a huge ass USB receiver. Then they started with cradles that would charge the mouse over USB. Eventually they got rid of the cradle and let you recharge via a micro USB port on the front of the mouse, so you could always keep working even while recharging.
And then you move to Apple, and astonishingly, it's a deja vu of Logitech in the late 90's -- you insert pairs of AA batteries. To recharge you have to take the damn things out, put them in a charger and wait. If it's Apple's charger, we're talking hours. And it's not a precise and power efficient system like Logitech's where batteries on some of their laptop mice will last for a year. It's Bluetooth, with more imprecise, jittery cursor movement, and loads more power hungry.
Now, why is Apple 15 years behind Logitech in convenience? Apple always has those smart little solutions that make you go ahhhhhh, surely they would have the slickest wireless mouse/keyboard power solution of anyone? Because Jony Ive would cry like a baby girl if he had to put a port for recharging somewhere on the mouse.
That's not a marriage of form and function, that's form blasting function in the face with a shotgun and urinating on its grave.
I sincerely hope a price hike is pure speculation and doesn't materialize.
I do think a full product line refresh - iPad Mini + Mac Mini + iMac on Oct 23rd - makes a ton of sense from a business and marketing standpoint just because of windows 8. If Apple ever had a unique opportunity to entice people away from Windows, this event where Windows users will decide if they want to go along for the ride is it.
If I were Cook I'd be milking this for everything I could. Raising prices would be a really bad strategic idea. If anything, I would say use lower quality screens in the 21.5" iMacs to be LED TFT displays and actually drop the price, leaving the IPS displays in the 27" and introduce a 24" again. Pricing the Mac Mini at $599 and an entry iMac at $999 would be a great invitation for people to justify the move. And of course market the bejesus out of Mac as an alternative to this crazy new Windows fiasco and you might make a huge dent in the Windows base.
I do think a full product line refresh - iPad Mini + Mac Mini + iMac on Oct 23rd - makes a ton of sense from a business and marketing standpoint just because of windows 8. If Apple ever had a unique opportunity to entice people away from Windows, this event where Windows users will decide if they want to go along for the ride is it.
If I were Cook I'd be milking this for everything I could. Raising prices would be a really bad strategic idea. If anything, I would say use lower quality screens in the 21.5" iMacs to be LED TFT displays and actually drop the price, leaving the IPS displays in the 27" and introduce a 24" again. Pricing the Mac Mini at $599 and an entry iMac at $999 would be a great invitation for people to justify the move. And of course market the bejesus out of Mac as an alternative to this crazy new Windows fiasco and you might make a huge dent in the Windows base.
For instance, in Hong Kong, Apple increased the unlocked price of iPhone 5 by 10% to HK$5,588 ($720) from HK$5,088 ($656) of the 4S. There haven't been such a huge price hike in the iPhone's history. Apple has changed under Cook - so don't expect Apple products to be cheaper and cheaper like before.
But for your next point, I think Apple can really enjoy an increase in market share because of Windows 8.
Agreed. The iMac keyboards and mice are in dire need of an improvement upgrade. They are second class peripherals compared to what can be bought from Mac-friendly 3rd party peripherals companies (e.g. Logitech, Kensington, Belkin, etc)
Please don't feed the trolls!
No matter how reasonable and rational your arguments are, you will not convince these crazy fanatics of your point. No matter how many of us use a desktop computer as a desktop, and value specific hardware over pointless size reduction, you will never stop these fools from spewing their garbage. Please stop trying to convince them, as it just gives their OCD another reason to hit the reply button.
No matter how reasonable and rational your arguments are, you will not convince these crazy fanatics of your point. No matter how many of us use a desktop computer as a desktop, and value specific hardware over pointless size reduction, you will never stop these fools from spewing their garbage. Please stop trying to convince them, as it just gives their OCD another reason to hit the reply button.
I think Apple may not update its magic mouse as they want you to use the Magic Trackpad, which might be made into the default configuration of the new iMac.
A screen with a computer in it, in your eye!!! ;-)
Wait, that'd be the eyePhone..
Nevermind...
Wrong!
Everything has a form. A tower simply has a form which is the result of a functional design. It goes under the desk and you don't even see it unless you change a DVD or some such thing.
Taking an iMac which already has thermal design problems and making it even smaller is what defies logic, but then that is not what is dictating the design of the iMac.
If Apple keeps raising their prices, particularly if driven by pointless "improvements", they just could succeed in killing off the computer line...or is that what they want to accomplish?
I for one would like a touch mouse with some damn body. I don't know about you guys, but I need some back on my frigging mouse! My hand cramps up using the magic mouse. It's really a shame - I like it in every way but it's not a realistic power user tool 
And I'd like a wireless keyboard with a number pad on it. As it stands now, Logitech's wireless solar keyboard is the best accessory I've ever seen for the Mac. I wish Apple would take some pointers
And I'd like a wireless keyboard with a number pad on it. As it stands now, Logitech's wireless solar keyboard is the best accessory I've ever seen for the Mac. I wish Apple would take some pointers
I think computers are still a worthy investment to Apple esp. when you take into account the fact that Apple nearly dominates the $1,000+ sector. For me the problem of the iMac is not the price but the whole AIO form factor. I have a 2008 24" iMac (IPS 1920 x 1200 panel), while the display panel still works great, the internals are really outdated but I can't change the internals and keep the display.
I hope they do make it thinner and more crippled, room for one 2.5" drive would be great.
It would prove I was right to build a hackintosh months ago.
On the other-hand if Timmy is brain-dead stupid enough to this, my next computer will be windows because there won't be a mac anymore.
It would prove I was right to build a hackintosh months ago.
On the other-hand if Timmy is brain-dead stupid enough to this, my next computer will be windows because there won't be a mac anymore.
I don't recall a printer ever being a part of any model if iMac.
Congratulations. But just as those of us who do need / desire them are not everyone, neither are folks like you who do not need / desire them.
Those who want a small box without extras have an option right now - Mac Mini and external display. And those who want a full-function machine have an option right now - the current iMac. Why change that to give one side two options and the other side none?
So the iMac is no longer an All-In-One machine, but instead a a Mac Mini fused with an Apple Thunderbolt Display. Which means the Mac Mini can now be killed because it serves no purpose.
On the flip side, this will hopefully force Apple to reduce the cost of the Mac Pro because it will now be the only "full featured" desktop Mac on offer.
Better yet, kill all the computers...they don't make much money (compared to the iPhone) anyway.
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There are a lot more people than Tim realizes who are sitting on the fence, not really wanting to leave the OS, but tired of the limited hardware choices. It's too bad that Adobe doesn't write Photoshop & etc for Linux and work with Canonical fulfill their objective of bringing an OS X like experience to Linux. That or someone else take free BSD and put their own GUI on top of it the way Apple did.
How's everything working with the Hack?
Glad to hear a new one is coming soon, this is promising. But my issue is the "price increase" why? Aren't they over priced enough? I am ready to replace my 1.8ghz iMac intel when the new one comes, but I don't want to pay any more, and I will be disappointing if it has less expandability/optical drive to save a bit in the rear... If anything needs to be removed its the chin! I never look at the back of my Mac! I hope its not prone to the problems it seems every generation of iMacs have faced in one way or another, I should know I have bought iMacs since 2001 and EVERYONE of them has had its own problem (that seriously affects it), most recently I have 90 lines of pixels on my intel iMac, and it has all kinds of video issues
Good point, those TV's prove people will make huge performance tradeoffs for a thin form factor on a non-mobile product.
Oh wait, those samsung displays have amazing image quality and there is no performance hit. Another really stupid analogy to try and mindlessly defend apple falls flat on its face.
Are we substituting 54 DVDs now, or one? If it's one, your comparison is about a lightyear off. You can get a 4GB flash drive for $5.
Right, and a DVD is an indestructible stone tablet in an underground vault?
Every storage type has its flaws. Tape is oxide on a strip, it holds up terribly. When they were restoring Hitchcock's Vertigo and brought out the old (and only) masters of the original score, they soon discovered that they only had one shot at transferring them because the oxide was literally falling off the tape as it went through the machine. I'm glad I don't have any important files on tape... or floppies.
As for DVD/CD, yes if you've used premium grade stuff and store them in under proper conditions they will hold up. Unfortunately most people do neither of those things. In the olden days when I used CD-R, and couldn't tell quality discs from crap, I burned a few backups. A few years later when I was going to transfer them to hard drive, they wouldn't read so I looked at one and noticed what I thought was a smudge. I tried to rub it off and realized it was a hole in the metal layer, which got bigger... parts fell off like shiny dandruff.
I've also had music CDs from the late 80's self destruct on me. I was ripping my CD collection and found that one had tiny bubbles in the plastic that had warped the metal layer in spots.
As for flash drives, we don't know yet. The shelf life is said to be 10 years which is precisely what they said about optical discs. Personally I have everything on hard drives, one removable stored at another location, one main and one backup at home.
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I agree, but does that apply to this particular thread or are you just on autopilot? I'm not seeing much (if any) defense of Apple here, it's more of a battle between people who want a thinner iMac and people who want a faster one.
It is not that price is the only consideration, plainly it is not, but value as much as anything. Nevertheless, price is a component in purchasing decisions, however, no matter how much Apple tries to say it is not.
I am with you about the AIO form factor. It just does not offer the flexibility that a tower does when it comes to adding things or updating them. When you take away the marketing speak, the iMac is little more than a laptop with a big screen. For those who like the AIO form factor, fine. It's just not for everyone. Apple offers so few choices of hardware that it does not take any great analysis to conclude that there will be a lot of people who are not well served by the available choices.